Sahara Pokerroom Review

[Xelent]

I went to go check out the Sahara last night and play in their tournament and maybe some cash games. I arrived a little late for the 7 PM tournament so I played cash games until the 11 PM tournament started.

The two cash games they had were 2/4 limit holdem with one $2 blind and 1/2 NL with $100 minimum $500 max buyin.

I played some 2/4 until the NL game started. I sat just around the time that a new dealer pushed in. He was flipping a lot of cards over when dealing and was complaining that the cards were sticky. I asked him to get a setup for new cards to fix the problem. The supervisor came over with a setup and berated the dealer in front of the entire table. He yelled at the dealer and told him to never ask for a setup again. I found this completely absurd and innapropriate.

Once the NL game began, I sat down and the action was very slow. The dealers were talking with the players WAY to much. I usually don't mind this, as long as they can talk and deal at the same time. Instead, they basicly stopped dealing or completely stopped following the action to talk to people. It slowed the game down and confused people.

The tournament was a $40+2 with an optional $20 rebuy in the first hour. The tourney chips were moldy and all sticky just like the cards. My first table dealer was talking with the players he seemed to know well at the table and joking around with them. Early in the tourney, I was in the SB and saw the flop for free. I checked my crappy hand and 2 players behind me checked quickly after. The dealer than made a crack at me and told me it was my turn. I told him I checked a while ago.

The tournament structure is actually decent other than the high percentage the house takes making it practically unbeatable. The blinds get rediculous just like all low buyin tournaments, but at the beginning there is some leighway(sp?) for play. The tournament is the only thing keeping that room alive.

The best part of the room was the sandwiches they give at break. Delicious. Other than that, the room seemed quite aweful and terribly run. I also got to play with a kid who was on saved by the bell.

One dealer went to push another dealer, when the supervisor (the same one that yelled at the other guy) told him he was on break instead of pushing. The dealer got very mad in front of everyone and said he only has had 1 sit. The continued to yell at eachother and swear at eachother behind the main desk until the dealer asked if he wanted to take it outside. They went outside and returned 10 minutes later in a much more calm demeanor.

Terrible room, this gets my worst rating ever, 7 thumbs up.

[OilMan]

I got pissed off just reading about this poker room.

[nightlyraver]

Thanks for the review. I will be in Vegas in a couple of weeks and I was actually considering playing at the Sahara. I now know to avoid it.

[Superfluous Man]

[ QUOTE ]
The tournament was a $40+2 with an optional $20 rebuy in the first hour.
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the high percentage the house takes making it practically unbeatable.

[/ QUOTE ]
Is the 40+2 part a typo? I would think that playing a de facto $60 buy-in tournament with only $2 in vig would be outstanding.

[Xelent]

I was going to actually write an article about what you just said. I'll explain about the vig issue. All the casinos are doing it and it is decieving to the players and will make them go broke in the long run. They will regret being so greedy. I think they should use the small buyin tournaments to attract players to the casino for either cash games or pit games, but they feel they need to make a lot of money from the tournament to even make the tournament worth their time.

I will give you a few examples:

MGM is now running a popular tournament daily at 11 AM. The buyin is $60 for T800, BUT for ONLY $5 more you can get an extra T400 to start with. What a great deal!

In small print at the bottom of the tournament sheet, "of the $60 buyin, $50 goes to the prize pool; $10 goes to administration. The optional $5 add-on goes to tournament staff"

This tournament is essentially a 50+15 tournament. This is not a beatable vig. I have no problem with the casino telling you its a 50+15, but they go out of their way to decieve you. It sounds much less attractive.

At the Sahara, its actually a $42 buyin with an optional $20 add-on. The add-on gives you as many chips as the $42, so it looks to be a great deal. So essentially, it is $62 to play in the tournament with equal chips as everyone else. People feel like they are giving only $2 to vig the way they set it up. In actuality, calculating the prize pool:

126 entries + 117 add-ons = $7632
The prize pool was only $5868

By my calculations that is 23% vig which clearly comes from a high amount the house takes on the enticing $20 add-on.


Even after my original review and these comments, I am not saying don't play in these tournaments if you want to. By all means, it is a great way to get some live tournament experience if you are on a limitted bankroll. It is hard to find a field of 120 live for so little money. Also, many players don't care about the money and just want to play in a fun tournament. All I am saying is that they are being deceptive and it will hurt them in the long run.

[Xelent]

Also you don't necesarily have to avoid things just because they are run poorly. Sometimes it is worth the hassle and slow play for some REALLY crappy players and fun times.

I just get upset when all these new poker rooms are being opened and they are being run terribly.

At the Wynn, if it's a slow hour and they have extra dealers sitting around doing nothing, I can get a heads up or three handed game going, and they will charge no rake to get the game going. They are paying the dealers anyway, by giving the players something to get a game started, there is a good chance the game will fill and they will get tons of rake over the next couple of hours as well as dealer tokes.

At the MGM, I tried to start where 6 were on the list. Only 2 of the people including myself were willing to start it shorthanded. I don't mind shorthanded play for one, and second, I understand that once you start the game, it fills usually within 10 minutes. They would not allow us to start the game heads up unless they took a FULL $4 rake. I knew I couldn't beat this and the game never got going. I would of even been willing for $1 to get the game going, but they wouldn't budge. The result was another empty table and a dealer sitting around getting paid anyway. Instead of having a good chance at filling the game, they made it impossible to even start it.

[flecks]

I played in their late tourney. What was immediately apparent was the demeanor of the dealers. These guys swore more amongst themselves more than the players did. They crammed twelve of us on one table. Mine was in the back left corner and I was seat 3 so I was next to an office door that dealers kept squeezing by to get through. It was so hot I thought I was going to pass out, but the chips in front of me were filthy enough to keep my head from hitting the table. The screen that showed the blinds was showing the early tourney's structure. I was not impressed. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[johnc]

Your report is very sad to read. A buddy and I stayed at the Sahara about a year and a half ago and were actually impressed with the friendly and courteous staff, including the dealers. Sure the dealers were chatty with the regulars but it never slowed down the action and I never heard a cross word from any of the staff even though they were all working extra shifts that weekend. I guess all the new rooms opening on the strip has placed added competition and pressure on the rooms, however this is no excuse for what you (and other posters) experienced -terrible! Sahara is fair journey from the rest of the strip so I'm sure to be less inclined to play there given the state of the room.

[Superfluous Man]

OK, thanks for clearing that up. Very edifying.

[Photoc]

This is pretty much my view on the place and I've seen some of the crap the OP says. The juice is insane, roughly 30% on tourneys and for some reason, money came up missing quite often and it didn't go to the dealers.